Scott Muldoon - Apr 30, 2012 10:53 pm (50766.) new y
Trying to juggle wargames with a one year old son, without 
dropping him too many times. 	 

DRUMS & MUSKETS: LEUTHEN

Got this latest VPG offering on the table tonight with Bill T. He took the 
Austrians and I the outnumbered Prussians.

Forgoing the historical flank march, I set up for a frontal assault on Leuthen 
town itself, hoping to pin his flank forces and defeat one of them piecemeal. 
The Prussians have so few troops I only kept Frederick's unit in reserve.

I spent the first turn just setting up my line. Bill counters by exposing 
my right flank south of Leuthen. Desultory cavalry skirmishes would tie up 
the units there all game. Eugene's main force took Sagschütz early and could 
not be dislodged. In general, the Prussian forces with their 6 morale and hard
to budge.

Moritz quickly cleared Leuthen town, but follow up attacks to the north were 
thrown back, leaving his situation precarious. Fortunately, the Prussians held 
stalwart as the remainder of Moritz' command and Frederick drew in more and 
more of Colloredo and Nadasdy's corps. A few units were routed, but these 
rallied and were held back as shaken units are very vulnerable.

Finally, on the last turn (6 pm) with Colloredo's corps close to breaking, I 
threw my forces at the Austrian center. The routing corps disintegrated as I 
played the Contagious Rout card. This was enough to score 1 VP with the 
Austrians having no options for knocking out any Prussian corps. A tied score 
is an Austrian win, so I barely pulled this one out.

The system plays quickly. It took us 2 hours, including teaching the game, 
my having dinner, and numerous breaks to attend to my toddler son. It reminds 
one of the well-established Nappy 20 series also from VPG, but the play is 
quite different in practice (appropriately so, given the scale change). Unit 
facing is crucial, and the clever bit where units give up some ZOC in order 
to move is potentially genius.

The use of dummy units is important for the Prussian side, but after a couple 
of turns it doesn't matter much. I wonder about a variant with the approach 
to battle, though...

I was concerned the linear combat was a bit rubbery. The lines rapidly got 
out of shape, but the incentive to reform was strong since flank attacks 
can be quite deadly. I am not too keen on the retreat results - given the 
combination of two-hex retreats, one-hex advances, and no mandatory attacks, 
the actual arrangement of combats on the line is generous. On the other hand, 
movement is so restricted that complex maneuvers are more or less prohibited. 
In the end the overall effect worked well enough, even for a battle as weird 
as Leuthen.

The CRT is differential and completely linear (1 strength point = 1 CRT column 
= 1 DRM). It takes a dogpile or complete mismatch to get serious results (morale 
test modifiers). The Prussians are rather invulnerable unless they get surrounded. 
The Austrians have enough weak points that their numbers are offset even in a 
straight up fight. The map terrain is more crucial than it first appears, a 
good thing in my book.

The tactics cards do not overwhelm the game, but provide a bit of color and 
differentiate the sides a little as well. Mainly they are good for keeping 
chrome out of the rulebook.

All in all a good outing for a new series, and of course the presentation is 
very well done. I look forward to more Drums & Muskets, but can we have some 
Spanish or Austrian Succession, or dare I say it, Great Northern War?